The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[brandislee]

... and kind of related. Has anyone asked anyone in charge of BYC if we could have a natural chicken keeping forum instead of confining it all to one thread? It would be so much easier to organize/find information and any threads we wished to ignore, we could just, well, ignore! But other forums have a similar subforum- I used to be on diaperswappers and the crunchy moms forum was one of the most active ones. Anyway, I was wondering about that the other day and just thought it was worth bringing up...

 

[aoxa]

Thanks, these pictures are really super helpful... I should be able to tell more with mine in a week or so. Only my rooster is solid white.

Glad I could help

... and kind of related. Has anyone asked anyone in charge of BYC if we could have a natural chicken keeping forum instead of confining it all to one thread? It would be so much easier to organize/find information and any threads we wished to ignore, we could just, well, ignore! But other forums have a similar subforum- I used to be on diaperswappers and the crunchy moms forum was one of the most active ones. Anyway, I was wondering about that the other day and just thought it was worth bringing up...

I think you mean topic, as BYC is a forum. Would be helpful.

 

[stonykill]

Hi everyone, I have over 700 posts to catch up on and I see many that catch my interest. Presently, I waiting for this next storm to pass over, yesterday was awful. Stony, Melabella, I wonder if they got you also. They sure were heading East and intensifying. The night before I finally separated the chickens in the appropriate pens and then it poured. No one got along, so I spent over any hour in pouring down rain. All evening long, the down pours and then sun and humidity. I felt bad for the newbies but after all, they are chickens. Someplace that expression, "mad as a wet hen" came from somewhere besides my Grandmother.

Stony-Did you know possums were on the endangered list? Not sure why, but that is what DEC says. I know they are endangered if they come near my chicken coops. Also, Rattlesnakes and again, ALL snakes are endangered near me. I have an official snake chopping hoe just for that purpose. Supposedly, we have rattlers but I've never seen one on our property.

This is what mad as a wet woman looks like after chasing chickens for an hour in a downpour (With thunder and lightning)

they are not on the list provided by DEC.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7494.html

 

[midnightroo]

Nice article and easy to read. Even a semester of nutrition and numerous nutrition books read this really helped.

Q
Difficult subject but thank you for explaining it.
I got in a debate with a vegan at work about this when I was showing pics of our milk bottle calf who will fill my freezer next year. She felt it was sad. I said its sad how awful cattle are treated at feed lots! And a non-vegan also at work says the same thing but gives me coudose for doing it as she wishes she had the nerve. She just says she never could do it. She sure wants to try the beef though! Most people are so out of touch with food anymore.

Disclaimer I haven't had a chance to read the article yet. Way behind on lots of stuff, but as a vegan now vegetarian it is hard being veg with so many meat eaters that don't understand why we choose not to eat meat. I was told, joking, but it still hurt my feelings, that I was no longer a member of the family because my dd and didn't eat ice cream any longer. Each person must find what is best for their body and follow that. Most people's tastes buds are so messed up from the processed food that they don't know what really good home grown food taste like. My dh eats meat so I try to buy him locally raised, organic meat. Good quality food whether veggies or meat is what is truly important for our bodies.

Ok, now for a chicken question. I know I tend to eat less when it is hot, but will chickens also reduce their food consumption? I have been putting out the same amount of food, but it sits around all day. It is about 90+ today and probably 95+ tomorrow with high humidity. Luckily, it feels pretty cool under the trees where they stay during the day.

Photos are lovely as usual.

Stay cool everyone if you are where it is hot!

 

[bbdal]

I posted the following in emergency section but wanted to post here too...

I have a game pullet (or at least we think that is what she is, she was supposed to be rir). She is 5.5 months old. I went to let the chicks out to forage this morning and she wouldn't come out rught away. She would walk a step or two forward then a bunch backwards. She finally came out and started foraging. I went to check on her a few minutes ago. She came up to me and was still doing the same thing. Should I be concerned? She is not laying yet. Some of the others just started last week. Thanks!

Since this post, I checked on her again and she was in a corner in the run while the others were foraging. I went to get some scratch and she acted normal then except for if a rooster was around she backed up. Could it be she is trying to get away from the roosters? We have too many and will be culling soon. I have also read about heavy metal poisoning. She has acess to the barn. Thanks!

 

[Keepitathome]

. It would be really hard and really expensive to do it without wheat, because what would you replace it with?


Not sure really... maybe oats. I am concerned about contact allergies. My wheat allergy seems to be getting worse, well it's more likely that the longer I go without it the more my body is able to respond to the allergen so the symptoms are more noticeable.


Quote:

This makes a lot of sense and is how I raise my kids. What kind of herbs have you planted?



Quote:
I strongly recommend Juliette de Bairacli Levy's The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable. I love it (and the only animal I have so far that it covers is chickens, although I plan to get more). It covers all the main species of farm animals and tells you how to prevent through feed and husbandry and how to treat many common ailments. Very useful.

Thank you! I've been looking for an herbal resource for the animals. My daughter is especially interested in herbs and I want to tap into that on the farm!



Quote:

that makes sense. I doubt our birds will be confined more than a day or two in winter here. Maybe once a year we get a whole week of freezing temps, but not every year.



Quote:
(because many people will be like "wild birds don't need extra calcium"). We have selectively bred chickens to lay far more than any other bird, and that takes a LOT of calcium.

Good point. I have been looking at this from the stand point of "what would the wild counterpart do?"



Thanks for your help!

 

[Sally8]

they are not on the list provided by DEC.

http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7494.html

Thanks for posting that site. We have a conservation guy that comes out a couple times a year to check on the snake dens and I will try to talk to him. Possum' are everywhere and everyone kills them. Not sure why he would tell us that. Same with the rattlesnake. Someone hit one with a car 2 miles down the road in front of a friends' house, Cornell came down and took it, the man was fined and no one has heard anything since. That was several years ago. That snake reached better than half the width of the road and was as big around as an arm. sue

 

[aoxa]

Disclaimer I haven't had a chance to read the article yet. Way behind on lots of stuff, but as a vegan now vegetarian it is hard being veg with so many meat eaters that don't understand why we choose not to eat meat. I was told, joking, but it still hurt my feelings, that I was no longer a member of the family because my dd and didn't eat ice cream any longer. Each person must find what is best for their body and follow that. Most people's tastes buds are so messed up from the processed food that they don't know what really good home grown food taste like. My dh eats meat so I try to buy him locally raised, organic meat. Good quality food whether veggies or meat is what is truly important for our bodies.

Ok, now for a chicken question. I know I tend to eat less when it is hot, but will chickens also reduce their food consumption? I have been putting out the same amount of food, but it sits around all day. It is about 90+ today and probably 95+ tomorrow with high humidity. Luckily, it feels pretty cool under the trees where they stay during the day.

Photos are lovely as usual.

Stay cool everyone if you are where it is hot!

Yes they do not eat as much this time of year, especially when it's hot. They are also much less active in hot weather.

My birds have been complaining about it and looking miserable the past 3 days. It's been in the 90's.

 

[stonykill]

Thanks for posting that site. We have a conservation guy that comes out a couple times a year to check on the snake dens and I will try to talk to him. Possum' are everywhere and everyone kills them. Not sure why he would tell us that. Same with the rattlesnake. Someone hit one with a car 2 miles down the road in front of a friends' house, Cornell came down and took it, the man was fined and no one has heard anything since. That was several years ago. That snake reached better than half the width of the road and was as big around as an arm. sue

I have found from talking to a few local DEC guys that I know more about the law than they do...unfortunately

 

[Keepitathome]

If you don't approve, don't engage unless you plan to have a healthy two sided discussion with someone. But the street has to run both ways. Of course, then we all have to realize that there are times to agree to disagree, drop the argument, and realize you can't change everyone's mind, nor can you know exactly what it's like to be in their shoes.

Basically see the bit again about being nice

I know I'm new here but I've been using forums like this for 13+ years. One thing that will go a long way in keeping a community cohesive is to always assume the best. Assume that the person whose post might offend you is questioning out of true curiosity. Assume that the other person is sincere, don't read sarcasm or anger into their post. The big thing that's lost in the Internet world are the unspoken things we use to communicate, body language, tone of voice and facial expression, we have a tendency to try to add tone when we read something and we're often wrong.